Your Raptors Audio System

[madmaxx101]

here are a list of the speaker wires in our truck. all of these wires are located at the factory amp under the center console. this is common for all years of the raptor with the exception of the note for the 2010 subwoofer

front left tweeter

green/orange (+)
grey/orange (-)

note.... this changes color at the tweeter connection behind the dash. on both the left and right side, there is a connection that is wrapped in orange heatshrink. the wire colors there are a brown (+) and a green (-) you can also verify the colors if you pull the other side of the connector off. there you will find the same wires that are at the factory amp.

front left woofer

white (+)
white/brown (-)

front right tweeter

purple/orange (+)
yellow/orange (-)

front right woofer

white/purple (+)
white/orange(-)

left rear speaker

white/green (+)
brown/yellow (-)

note.... since the rears are a coax speaker, meaning the woofer and tweeter are combined into one unit, there is no tweeter wire. the tweeter gets its signal from the same input as the woofer. it just runs through a cap inline to filter out bass

right rear speaker

brown/white (+)
brown/blue (-)

center channel speaker

green (+)
grey/yellow (-)

subwoofer

voice coil 1
purple/green (+)
green/white (-)

voice coil 2
green/purple (+)
grey (-)

note... on the 2010 model year, there is a second amp attached to the factory sub. this is the only year truck that has the secondary sub amp.

when upgrading the audio system, i do not use the rear, center channel, or the subwoofer wires as an input to my sound processor. i dont know why, but with the multiple sound processors i have tried, anytime the rear or the sub signal was introduced into the inputs, it created a distorted sound. my inputs used are the front tweeters (left and right) and the front door woofers (left and right). it took me quite a while to figure out why the sound was distorted. i had multiple trucks in for systems and they all ended up the same. front inputs only. i would highly recommend you do the same

So are these the wires going into the amp or to the speakers from the amp?

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

these are output wires. coming out of the amp

 

[madmaxx101]

Ok thanks I was getting confused

 

[zyvin]

2013

Interesting that the crossover signal was xover at the sony amp and then had a cap in place as well, I wonder what the caps value is (mine are in the attic).

Also on the tweeter subject, several of you have used the C5 tweeter with the crossover supplied with the components, I wondered if anyone had used the crossover for the mid in the door and used caps on the tweeter. (I know JL has caps if you buy just the C5 tweeters separately) Maybe Noah knows the value of those caps? I assume they are crossing over somewhere in the 4-5k range.

One more question for the stereo experts, as I fight with my DQ-61 often, has anyone tried the JL FIX 82??

 

[Lvrkight6481]

Well thanks to the help of this forum and several attempts my audio upgrade is now complete. Ended up going/having to go with an audio control lc6i into and a dqdx and then a ppi 900.5 5 channel. Polk mm 6.5 components in the front, stock rears for now, and a polk mm shallow down fire 12 inch sub. After 3 weeks of hell with 2 lcq1s and a dq61 all with issues. Finally got the above working and have audio bliss.

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

Interesting that the crossover signal was xover at the sony amp and then had a cap in place as well, I wonder what the caps value is (mine are in the attic).

Also on the tweeter subject, several of you have used the C5 tweeter with the crossover supplied with the components, I wondered if anyone had used the crossover for the mid in the door and used caps on the tweeter. (I know JL has caps if you buy just the C5 tweeters separately) Maybe Noah knows the value of those caps? I assume they are crossing over somewhere in the 4-5k range.

One more question for the stereo experts, as I fight with my DQ-61 often, has anyone tried the JL FIX 82??

i dont know the value of the inline caps, but i will tell you this. do not use them in a new setup. according to the rta, 10-12 trucks dont let enough signal through, and 13-14 trucks allow too low of a frequency through. aftermarket tweeters generally cut off around 3000hz.

i have not played with the fix units from jl audio. im not sure how well i like it. once again its a self calibrating unit which means for the sq person, you have no adjustments.

 

[NYBlues]

Hey Noah...

I have a '14 Crew w/the Nav & Sony system, now planning to upgrade my audio as well, so very happy to find this thread with all your advise and expertise!

The sound is actually quite horrible, and worse than assumed given the cost of the lux package. Yet you can't expect much from $10 speakers and a cheap Sony amp that they've eq'ed the crap out of for reasons I don't completely understand.

I'm not really an audiophile but read through everything and trying to make sure I know what's needed for these trucks, however, still left with a few questions...

What's the front door component woofer speaker size?

And is a whole new custom sub box needed, or can an aftermarket 8" or 10" sw be dropped into the oem enclosure?

I was initially hoping to go as minimalistic as possible and maybe just add a JL Audio DSP, but after learning how cheap the factory speakers were, realize they're also a big part of the bad sound problem.

I believe our OEM amp has 2 front channels (separate component woofer & tweeter), 1 center channel (component woofer), 1 rear channel (combined coax woofer/tweeter), and 1 sub channel (dual voiced subwoofer).

So does this mean its a 5 chnn amp, and if so how much power is going into each channel?

In addition, you said the only way to a clean undistorted sound through a processor was with the front channel inputs alone. How are you able to use the factory controls and settings if only front signal is getting sent out from oem unit?

Sorry for my confusion, and if you then wanted to continue using all the speakers/channels, do you add a 5chn amp after the DSP?

And is it also better to run a separate amp for the sub channel?

If I have something wrong please correct me or elaborate further...

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

Hey Noah...

I have a '14 Crew w/the Nav & Sony system, now planning to upgrade my audio as well, so very happy to find this thread with all your advise and expertise!

The sound is actually quite horrible, and worse than assumed given the cost of the lux package. Yet you can't expect much from $10 speakers and a cheap Sony amp that they've eq'ed the crap out of for reasons I don't completely understand.

I'm not really an audiophile but read through everything and trying to make sure I know what's needed for these trucks, however, still left with a few questions...

What's the front door component woofer speaker size?

And is a whole new custom sub box needed, or can an aftermarket 8" or 10" sw be dropped into the oem enclosure?

I was initially hoping to go as minimalistic as possible and maybe just add a JL Audio DSP, but after learning how cheap the factory speakers were, realize they're also a big part of the bad sound problem.

I believe our OEM amp has 2 front channels (separate component woofer & tweeter), 1 center channel (component woofer), 1 rear channel (combined coax woofer/tweeter), and 1 sub channel (dual voiced subwoofer).

So does this mean its a 5 chnn amp, and if so how much power is going into each channel?

In addition, you said the only way to a clean undistorted sound through a processor was with the front channel inputs alone. How are you able to use the factory controls and settings if only front signal is getting sent out from oem unit?

Sorry for my confusion, and if you then wanted to continue using all the speakers/channels, do you add a 5chn amp after the DSP?

And is it also better to run a separate amp for the sub channel?

If I have something wrong please correct me or elaborate further...

the speakers are 5x7 in all 4 doors.
do no use the oem sub enclosure if you look on the bottom of it, you will see a bolt. that bolt is bolted directly into the oem subwoofer. its designed to do that to help make the box more stiff. the cheap plastic of the oem sub box is not good for 2 reasons. 1) the plastic will flex and will make any woofer (regardless of price) sound terrible. 2) the oem sub enclosure is way too small for any decent woofer to fit.

there are 5 channels going to the front. the oem amp has seperate channels for each speaker. i use the front left and right channels as inputs to my processor because during my testing, i always got distorted sound when adding the rear or sub channels. so i just stopped trying altogether and used what i know works well. all your oem features work the same except fade. once you set the system up properly, you should never have to adjust it. and with a higher end processor, you have the fade and balance available with that unit.
power is all dependant on how you listen to music. for extremely loud music using the recommended power is probably ideal or slightly higher. for sound quality you can run quite a lot of power. i run 200 watts to each speaker in my front stage. meaning that i have a 4 channel 800 watt amp powering my front door woofers and tweeters. my system is whats called a bi-amped setup. it gives the best sound quality when tuned properly. however you do not need to do this. using the supplied crossovers that come with the new speakers allow them to work as a set so you can use a 4 channel amp to power all the speakers in the truck. it is always best to have a dedicated sub amp, but sometimes its not possible depending on your situation. you can use a 5 channel amp to run your whole system, but i recommend using a 6 channel amp and bridging 5&6 for your sub. this allows you to upgrade in the future without having to buy 2 new amplifers. it lets you convert your 6 channel amp into just a speaker amp and adding a sub amp is all you would need to do.

forgot to add,
the signal from the oem system goes into the processor. from there the processor send signal to your new amps.

 

[NYBlues]

Thanks for response... awesome info!

What would be the biggest component woofer you can fit into the 5x7 opening in the front door... 5"?

Subwoofer advise makes sense, would be foolish to drop a bunch cash on new system and stick yourself with a cheap sounding flimsy plastic oem box to house subwoofer!

I guess I'd go with a 10" sub speaker (dual voice?) with a separate amp and look into either building a box myself to fit perfectly where oem was located or possibly getting a custom built.

So when running a dsp using front left/right oem amp out channels to processor, could I still have all my original oem channels (front L/R, center, rear L/R) working on an amp either with an included sub channel or else separate dedicated amp powering sub?

I'm also not too concerned with fade, since as you said once it sounds good no reason to mess with it.

I'm planning to have truck at shop which happens to do car audio & mobile electronic upgrade work beginning of summer, so most likely have them install components I eventually choose. However, perhaps if your prices are as good as your knowledge and advise we can work out a purchase as well?

Let me further research what I wanted specifically within my budget, and if you give me a preferred way to reach you (through company website contact?), I'll give you a call when ready.

 

[NYBlues]

I wanted to add... can you just install a DSP with no other upgrades to change the sound of the oem speakers?

Or what if you included some decent sounding speakers as well with a DSP?

I'm simply trying to get some perspective from a cost prohibitive factor, given not everyone may have the budget for additional amps, with profession installation of new speaker wiring & power cables.